: Walgreens stock dives after adjusted profit miss and downbeat full-year outlook

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. WBA took a 2.9% dive in premarket trading Thursday, after the drug store chain and health care services company missed fiscal fourth-quarter profit expectations and provided a downbeat outlook. Net losses for the quarter to Aug. 31 narrowed to $180 million, or 21 cents a share, from $415 million, or 48 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share fell 17% to 67 cents, to miss the FactSet consensus of 69 cents. Sales grew 9.2% to $35.42 billion, to beat the FactSet consensus of $34.80 billion. as U.S. retail pharmacy sales rose 3.7%, international sales increased 12.4% and U.S. healthcare sales jumped 217% to reflect acquisitions. The company said it has taken a number of steps to align its cost structure with its business performance, including planned cost cuts of $1 billion and lowered capital expenditures by $600 million. “We anticipate seeing the impact of these actions in fiscal 2024, beginning in the second quarter,” said Interim Chief Executive Ginger Graham. For fiscal 2024, the expects adjusted EPS of $3.20 to $3.50, below the FactSet consensus of $3.71. The stock has tumbled 25.5% over the past three months through Wednesday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA had slipped 1.6%.

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